We’ve exciting products coming in for India: Motorola V-P

The US-based Motorola Mobility has had a roller coaster ride over the last few years. After the initial successes with products like Moto RazR, one of the first flip-mobile phones, it has gone through a series of acquisition, first by Google in May 2012 and then by Lenovo in January this year. The brand is now set for a big come back with the launches of devices like Moto G and Moto X.

The company has adopted a different ‘go-to-market’ strategy – selling through online platform Flipkart.com – which has sold around five-lakh units of Moto G and X (launched in February and March respectively). Motorola launched Moto E on Tuesday at ₹6,999 shaking up the entry level smartphone market. In an interview with Business Line , Magnus Ahlqvist, Corporate Vice-President (Europe, Africa and Asia), Motorola Mobility, shares more on India plans. Edited excerpts:

The initial feedback from consumers has been phenomenal for Moto G and X. From the global level, we see India as a great opportunity. Even though many people still live with feature phones, but now we are looking at giving Internet experience to such people with handset like Moto E. As per our study, many of them are looking for such mobile phones.

But why only with Flipkart and not through offline stores or other e-commerce sites like Amazon or eBay?

We wanted to do something different from the traditional means and we invested a lot of time in building such relationships (with Flipkart). It has enabled us for a long partnership – with similar understanding and philosophy –we focusing on sales and they (Flipkart) bringing in consumers. We believe there is lot more in future to work together.

Was it to save money on offline stores or do you plan to do that later?

That was not the major reason. The major reason to go with Flikart was to focus on our execution process. If we have more partners, there would have been more complexities, wasting all our efforts. We don’t have any plans for the time being to expand beyond this partnership.

What is the way forward, especially after becoming part of Lenovo?

We are still not part of Lenovo until the transactions are closed. But, I think the combination is going to be a strong one and they are publicly clear that Motorola brand will remain as it is.

Lenovo has strong presence and scale globally and here too, and such things will make exciting combinations. We are expecting the deal to be closed sometime later this year.

How many people do you have in India now and what are your hiring plans?

We have 500 people in India on the engineering side. I don’t have other numbers, but we do have a significant presence in other departments too and will maintain those numbers. In fact, we are constantly looking for good talents and I believe that is the pace at the moment in India.

Would you look at launching other devices such as feature phones, tablets or wearable devices?

The consumer is the focus for us right now. We will try to make a difference with the consumers – whether that is with best smartphones or wearables or accessory categories.

India is an important market for us and the testament to that is we are stepping up our investments. Momentum is strong and that is why India is one of the first markets for Moto E to be launched. We have great accessory (wearable devices) plans – like a smart watch based on Android, which would come here after the global launch sometime during the summer.

What kind of market share are you looking at in India?

If we bring very good products proposition, which we are doing now, the market share will take care of itself.

We have some discussions internally on the opportunity and with our services and responses from consumers we are excited about the future.

India is also definitely big for us in terms of research and development with a biggest centre (in Bangalore) outside the US.

They are working on a lot of devices, which would have wireless features, such as transferring contacts from one handset to another. We have lot of exciting products coming in for the Indian market.

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